14 



NATIONAL DAIRY COUNCIL CHICAGO 



transformed and redeposited in the 

 land in order to make the land yield 

 more human food. 



The foundation of national prosperity 

 through its agriculture and our 

 supremacy among the nations of the 

 world in agriculture are based and 

 dependent then upon animal hus- 

 bandry. 



Agreed upon the proposition that the 

 development of animal husbandry is 

 vital to the maintenance of the value 

 of our land, its producing povt^er, and 

 its continued profit to the producer, 

 we find that dairy cattle, rather than 

 beef cattle, are essential to our prosper- 

 ity, as experience in any country has 

 amply shown. 



To establish and accept the principle 

 of increasing our stock of Dairy Cattle 

 was one thing. 



To solve the practical questions in the 

 wake of such an increase was quite 

 another. 



The individual farmer would not add 

 to, nor improve his stock unless it paid 

 him to do so. The market for his 

 product was far from firm and profit- 

 able, and the conditions of the industry 

 unstable and unsatisfactory because 

 of the utter lack of organization. 



MORE CATTLE UPON THE FARMS 

 meant a largely increased production 

 of milk and milk products, and 

 immediately there arose the grave 

 question of finding, under the already 

 aggravated conditions, a market which 

 would absorb so great an increase in 

 milk production. 



This great national problem has for 

 years agitated the minds of all inter- 

 ested in our national welfare, and 

 particularly those whose lives, fortunes 



and profits are closely attached to the 

 soil. 



Standing idly by, the danger to 

 agriculture, to dairying, and to the vast 

 business interests related to, and 

 dependent upon the Dairy Industry, 

 grew. 



Progressive men called a "Round Table 

 Conference" at the close of the National 

 Dairy Show of 1913, to discuss these 

 important questions. In this confer- 

 ence sat three delegates from thirty 

 industrial and educational associations 

 within the Dairy Industry. A thorough 

 discussion of all problems, national, 

 agricultural and dairy, resulted in the 

 unanimous conviction that the burden 

 of saving the national wealth rested 

 upon the Dairy Industry, and that its 

 own existence and progress hung in the 

 balance of the solution of that problem. 



Investigations were made. They proved 

 that the American people have no con- 

 ception of the value of milk and milk 

 products as foods, and serious mis- 

 conceptions as to their economy. It 

 became apparent that the country was 

 not being supplied with one-fourth its 

 needs from the standpoint of its physi- 

 cal and financial wealth. 



THIS SERIOUS UNDER-CONSUMP- 

 TION, largely due to lack of informa- 

 tion, has been aggravated by continu- 

 ous attacks, primarily during the muck- 

 raking era when pseudo- reformers, 

 pseudo-scientists, unscrupulous and 

 vicious writers busied themselves — 

 for power and for pelf — by spreading 

 misrepresentations as to the food value 

 as well as safety in the methods of 

 production, handling and distribution. 

 The public became confused. Its con- 

 fidence was destroyed, and a pall settled 

 over the business. 



